Yesterday, I did a really dumb thing. I took my contacts out to rest my eyes and could not find my saline solution. Hoping that my daughter had left some of her solution behind, I ran to the upstairs bathroom. There, I found a small bottle that looked a lot like my saline […]
We have always had horses. My husband grew up with them. I am afraid…still. A few years ago, I decided to try again to overcome some of my fears so I took some lessons from on older cowboy that we knew. I understood that it would be important to start on the […]
I used to facilitate an expressive writing class at our county jail. One of our fun activities involved using something called a story starter. A story starter is a way to give the writer a place to begin. I would give each young lady a slip of paper with a sentence written on it and […]
“You are getting very sleepy…” A long chain holding a pendulum swings back and fourth. Someone speaks in slow, monotone sentences, inducing a “coma-esque” state in the person (subject) that sits watching and listening. The subject is unaware of the present moment, but can go back in time and recover memories that were either stuffed , were […]
We all build walls. Even the politicians talk about building walls. We think that they will protect us. But do they? Janie had built some pretty impressive walls. I did not know if I could scale the walls that she had erected. She was so hidden away. The next time that I met her was in […]
The author, psychologist and theologian, John Bradshaw says that the first three steps of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) restore order between me and God. The second set of steps restore order within me, the third set of steps restore order between me and my family and the final three steps restore order between me and the world. This perspective made […]
I became a mother on Mother’s day, twenty-seven years ago. My son came into this world at eight and one half pounds, twenty-one inches long. Little did I know or understand the weight of a new life. But, from those early days, when I went to his crib to be sure that he was still breathing till the time that I […]
Early in my first pregnancy, it seemed that everyone was talking about babies. And there were pregnant women everywhere…all of the sudden. Or at least, that was my perception. Pregnancy is scary and exciting. There is so much joy involved that it spills over and people want to rub your belly and tell you about […]